Tag Archives: akuacon

Everything is returning to normal. No more vacations or long road trips to distant cons to inform attendees about the history of CGI in anime. Instead, I attended a “mini-con” in my old hometown of Watertown. I gave my presentation on CGI in anime and held down an artist table as well. I tried something new, which I actually learned from a friend at AnimeFargo last year, using a second monitor so other attendees could watch me work and see how Cosmic Rage is made and see what programs I use.

It was amazing to see such a great turnout for Akuacon, especially when I would have never thought that would have happened when I was a student there. It’s pretty awesome to see the progression of the anime community in a decade. I look forward to being a part of more to come.

On the production side of things, it has been a full steam ahead kind of week. I was able to get some good nights of work in and was really productive over the con as well.

In case you forgot, the current scene I am working on is composed of 9 shots (debating about cutting one). I was able to get all of the backgrounds done. This means they aren’t roughed out, I have final renders done and in After Effects for me to work with. There will be no time wasted in waiting for image sequences to finish rendering.

I was also able to start adding in the crowds to these backgrounds as well. I would estimate I am about half done with building the crowds, something I aim to finish up for next weeks update. Along with that, I did discover I missed a piece of artwork, so I need to ink that piece and also get the coloring and shading completed as well.

I do need to spend a bit of time over the holiday in the garden, since we are trying to get the weeds a little more under control since I spent so much of June traveling. July should be a less hectic and also with less miles. I also need to get another piece of production art up soon as well! Stay tuned!

I’ll be presenting my History of CGI in Anime panel at AkuaCon in Watertown, SD. I grew up in Watertown, SD so I am really looking forward to presenting and meeting more of my fellow fans in South Dakota. The interesting thing with AkuaCon, is it is a one day free con for everyone to check out. Here are more details…

As you can tell, I missed the production update at the start of the week. This past week has been a little on the crazy side, so I decided to just merge my usual two posts into one. From a production standpoint, I didn’t get much done at all, let me explain. It was a rough week from a medical standpoint, not me personally but I had a family member have to take a trip to the ER and a few of my close friends had family get sick, have operations and even one passing away. I talked to them as needed and tried to be there for what they needed. I haven’t had to cope with a family loss for a while and know it isn’t the easiest thing to deal with. I’d do anything for my close friends.

I had a quick turnaround project spring up that I needed to get done for a client and I had to my help my parents on a household project as well.

With all of those events going on, I was able to make the last half of Akuacon in my hometown of Watertown. The larger con, Sogencon, that was held in Sioux Falls, SD had it’s last year last fall, so the staff has been working on small one day cons to take the place of them and keep people interested. I didn’t know what to expect to start with, so I hung out in the gaming area watching tournaments. One of the con staffers made me feel really welcomed and I played in some tourneys and chatted with more of the staffers and gamers. I have been off the con seen for a while, outside of a couple last year, but the larger events with panels are easier to blend in if you are a solo act. The mini-con was a fun time and I met some new friends. I hope to work with them and help with the con scene in South Dakota and get a con back in East river South Dakota.

If you recall last week, I mentioned the business cards I ordered. Well, funny story, as it turns out the UPS guy decided to leave them on the doorstep and it rained. You can’t make this stuff up. So the majority of the cards were destroyed, stuck together after being soaked. I was able to save a few (as you can see below) and more are on order. Thankfully Vistaprint was nice enough to understand the situation and are replacing the order. No complaints about the customer service at all, in fact I think that is great service and I wanted to share.

I am aiming to get back on track this week and get these posters done for AnimeFargo! My goal is to get at least one more done this week, I may have another project to work on this weekend, but I have deadlines set for August. Should be a fun month and looking forward to sharing more!